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Supervisors Ranalli and Veerkamp recommending the Board authorize the Chair to sign a letter addressed to the California Energy Commission (CEC) to request that the CEC allocate additional Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) funds for the forest bioenergy projects that scored favorably in the CEC's review of the projects considered for EPIC Grant Funding Opportunity 15-325.
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As part of the December 13, 2016, Board of Supervisors meeting agenda (16-1262, Item #41) the Board, at the request of Supervisors Ranalli and Veerkamp, authorized the Chair's signature on a letter to the California Energy Commission (CEC) in support of the proposed forest waste to energy project proposed by All Power Labs in collaboration with community partners that include Sierra Pacific Industries, the Bureau of Land Management and the Sierra Resource Conservation District.
All Power Labs' project was submitted for consideration in response to CEC Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) Grant Funding Opportunity (GFO) 15-325. This project proposes a 600 kW biomass gasification energy generating facility, consisting of four 150 kW units, that is proposed to be located at the Sierra Pacific Industry site in Camino with the primary intent of producing electricity utilizing forest waste, including the dead and dying trees that are the result of the extended drought and bark beetle infestation.
Numerous project applications, including the All Power Labs project proposed for the Sierra Pacific Industries site in Camino, were submitted in response to GFO 15-325. Only ten projects passed the initial screening, and only five passed the secondary screening. Each of these five projects received a very high score with all five projects separated by just a few points. Due to limited EPIC funding, only two of these five projects received funding and can now move forward. Included in the projects that passed this process, but did not receive funding, is the All Power Labs biomass gasification energy generating facility proposed for the Sierra Pacific Industries site in Camino.
Supervisors Ranalli and Veerkamp recommend the Board authorize the Chair to sign a letter addressed to the California Energy Commission to request that the CEC allocate additional EPIC funds for the forest BioMAT projects that could be a critical resource to aid our County's efforts to responsibly dispose of trees affected by the drought and bark beetle infestation and the resulting tree mortality crisis and can be crucial to our efforts to establish a long-term resilient forest that can prevent or diminish the next tree mortality crisis.